Whatsapp Viral Marleting

Exploration of factors affecting
the ‘forwarding’ intention of
WhatsApp messages
Under the Guidance of
Dr. Ajay Kumar
Assistant Professor
Central University of Haryana
Presented by
Pranab Kishor Choudhary
Roll No. 180554
(MBA 4th Semester)

Content
Introduction
Rationale of the study
Objectives
Literature review
Research methodology
Findings
Limitation and Future Scope of the Study

Introduction
• Viral Marketing is the need of the hour
for changing business environment.
• It is fast and effective in generating
brand awareness and interest.
• It’s users and consumers who makes a
viral campaign successful.
• Hence, it is important for marketer to
understand the driving force behind any
content being viral in order to control and
harness the effect of viral marketing.

WhatsApp as a tool for Viral Marketing
• WhatsApp is a proprietary, cross-
platform, free instant messaging
subscription service for smartphones.
• As mobile instant messaging services
like WhatsApp have vast user base it
can be an effective tool for viral
campaign.
• WhatsApp has about 1.5 billion
monthly active users worldwide.
• India is biggest market of WhatsApp
with more than 400 million user base.
Source: Techcrunch.com July 26, 2019

Rationale of the study
• Findings of this study can provide marketers with useful insight into consumer
preference and perception in order to create more engaging and successful viral
marketing campaign.

Literature review
• Viral Marketing or viral advertising is a business strategy that uses
existing social networks to promote a product. Generally, customers
get rewards/ offers for this sharing (Ghosh et al., 2018).
• Viral marketing techniques can help a marketing communication to
spread quickly which can help the promotion of brands, products and
services. Another reason to choose viral marketing is that it uses free
endorsement of user rather than a cost intensive medium. (Haryani,
2015).
• Beyond the complexity of creative design features the understanding
of consumer behavior is necessary for management and success of a
campaign (Ghosh et al., 2018).

Literature review …
• Viral marketing is extremely inexpensive and influential but in order
to harness its benefit it is essential to explore and improve it’s
determinants (Karimiyazdi & Mokhber, 2015).
• Viral marketing is still a rapidly evolving area and further research is
clearly needed to monitor new developments and make sense of the
radical changes these developments bring to the market. (Woerndl et
al., 2008).
• Social exchange of information affects consumer attitudes and
purchase intentions. Entertaining, informative and credible viral
marketing messages exhibit a significant influence on message
process involvement. (Trivedi 2017).

Literature review .…
• There is some degree of influence of viral marketing over cognitive
awareness of people. (Fouad, 2017).
• There is a good scope for the deployment of viral marketing as a
marketing communication tool in the Indian market (Dasari 2010).

Objectives
Find out factors
impacting forward
intentions
To study relative
importance of those
factors

Research Methodology
• The nature of the research is exploratory cum descriptive.
• Data type = Primary data.
• Data collection method = Sample Survey
• Tools used for Analysis – Google Form, MS-Excel, SPSS
• Population = WhatsApp users across the country
• Total Response = 125
• Data collection tool = Self Structured and Undisguised questionnaire
• Total item = 30
• 5 for demographic details
• 25 for behavioral factors

Research Methodology… cont…
• Questionnaire was designed around the 12 Factors based on literature review
which are as follows.
• Incentive
• Size of Message
• Type of Media
• Language
• Use of Emoji
• Entertainment Value
• Informativeness
• Ease of Access
• Source
• Call to Action
• Personalization
• Situational Appropriateness
• 5-point Likert – scale has been used

• Responses have been
collected through online
platform.
• Respondents belonged to
several states of India.
Data Collection

Demographic Profile of Respondents
Gender Percentage (%)
Male 76.8
Female 23.2
Age Percentage (%)
Under 18 years 5.6
18 to 30 years 86.4
31 to 45 years 7.2
Above 45 years 0.8
Education Percentage (%)
Less than High School 2.4
High School 15.2
Graduate 44.8
Post Graduate 35.2
Ph.D. or Higher 2.4
Occupation Percentage (%)
Government Employee 12.8
Private Job 16.8
Student 54.4
Self-employed 4.8
Home-maker 3.2
Unemployed 8

Reliability
• Cronbach alpha, using SPSS 26.0, was executed to test the reliability
of the questionnaire.
• The score is .870 which is higher than .6 and hence questionnaire is fit
for further testing.

KMO and Bartlett’s Test
• The data was then tested for Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of sampling
adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity.
• High value of KMO i.e. 0.795 indicate that sample is sufficient for
factor analysis.
• The Bartlett’s test of sphericity is .000 which is less than .05 indicating
that there exists significant relationship among the variable.

Factor analysis
• The factor analysis was carried out on 24 items
• Following 7 factors came out to be affecting the intention of users to
forward a message on WhatsApp
• Perceived value of Message
• Expressiveness
• Financial Incentive
• Language
• Ease of Access to the Information
• Convenience (To read and forward)
• Personalization

Perceived value of Message
• This factor includes 9 items which represents
• Informativeness
• Entertainment value and
• Situational Appropriateness
• This indicates that users are more likely to forward a message which
provides them value. Value here can be either entertainment of user
or any such information which can be useful and by forwarding them
user will feel useful himself.
• In addition if message are related to any recent event it will get more
forward.

Expressiveness
• This Includes following 3 items
• Emoji makes a message more fun and interesting
• It is easy to understand a message with emoji's
• I like to forward Videos and Images instead of text only messages
• Expressiveness is of message can be understood in term of how much
it is capable of conveying the emotions.

Financial Incentive
• This factor includes Following 2 items
• I am willing to perform additional steps if it provides more cash prize
• I should get cash backs/ rewards for forwarding messages
• It measures effects of financial incentives provided by marketers to
forward a message or referral on WhatsApp.
• People are even willing to perform extra steps if it provides more
financial gains.

Language
• This factors consists of following 3 items
• I will prefer sending messages in local/National Language than in English
• I like to forward messages which are in my mother tongue
• Text messages are Boring
• It about language used into a communication.

Ease of Access to the Information
• This factor consist following two items
• I like to verify a message before forwarding it to someone
• I like to receive and send messages with direct link to the website
• Some message contains URL of original product page or source which
makes it easier to verify a message for users.

Convenience
• It consist 3 items
• I prefer receiving and sending short messages over long messages
• I am more likely to forward a message if it is concise and to the point
• It's convenient when there is a button to share on whats-app
• Convenience in term of how easy to reads a communication is, like a
brief message is easily readable in short time.
• Also how easy it is to forward or refer some thing on whatsapp.

Personalization
• It consists of following 2 items
• I like messages which are directly addressed to me
• I will forward a message if it has come from a trustworthy person
• It is implied that a message is likely to receive positive reception
either it is formed in a personalized way or it has come from a person
which is trustworthy to receiver.

Regression Analysis
• Regression analysis showed that following factor has significant
influence on the users intention to forward a communication
• Perceived value of Message
• Financial Incentive
• R Square = .356, Which implies that above two factors explains 35%
of total WhatsApp forward.
• The significance for these factors is .000 which implies that there is 0
occurrence in 1000 which is just coincidence hence the model is
significant.

Independent t-Test
• Grouping Variable – Gender (Male and Female)
• Test Variable - I usually forward WhatsApp messages
• Mean: Male – 2.3125, Female – 2.3103
• Significance Value (Levene Stats) come out 0.452, which is >0.05
therefore homogeneity of variance condition is met.
• The significance value that is sig.(2-tailed) = 0.992 which is >0.05
• This means that there is no significant difference between mean of
male and female. And hence there is no effect of gender on
forwarding intention of a WhatsApp message.

Independent t-Test
• Test Variable – Perceived Value of Message
• Mean: Male – 3.1400, Female – 3.4215
• Significance Value (Levene Stats) come out 0.200, which is >0.05
therefore homogeneity of variance condition is met.
• This means that there is no significant difference between mean of
male and female. And hence perceived value of message has same
effect for both male and female.

Independent t-Test
• Test Variable – Financial Incentive
• Mean: Male – 1.9375, Female – 1.9483
• Significance Value (Levene Stats) come out 0.042, which is <0.05 therefore
homogeneity of variance condition is not met.
• This means that there is no significant difference between mean of male and
female. And hence Financial Incentive has same effect for both male and female.

Relation B/w Occupation & Forwarding of WhatsApp messages
• Dependent Variable – I usually forward whats app messages
• The Factor variable – Occupation
• Levene Statistics – 0.886 (Which is >.05, Hence homogeneity of variance
condition is met.
• Significance of F Statistics = 0.162 (Which is >.05, Hence there is no affect of one’s
occupation on one’s intention to forward a message.
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
Government
Employee
Private Job Student Self-employed Home-maker Unemployed
Mean
of
I
usually
forward
whats
app
messages
Occupation of Respondents
N Mean
Government Employee 16 2.6250
Private Job 21 2.3810
Student 68 2.3382
Self-employed 6 1.8333
Home-maker 4 2.7500
Unemployed 10 1.6000

Relation B/w Occupation & Perceived Value of Message
• Dependent Variable – Perceived Value of Message
• Levene Statistics – 0.022 (Which is <.05, Hence homogeneity of variance
condition is not met.
• Welch = .001 (Which is < .05, Hence there is a significance difference between
difference occupation group.)
• Brown-Forsthye = 0.13 (Which is < .05, which also convey that there exist
difference between groups)

Cont..
• Mean value for different groups
are shown in the table
• Self employed and unemployed
users were least driven by
perceived value of message.
Where as Government
employees, Private employees
and student are driven by
perceived value of message.
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
4.50
Government
Employee
Mean
of
Perceived
value
of
Message
N Mean
Student 68 3.3105
Home-maker 4 3.9722

Relation B/w Occupation & Financial Incentive
• Dependent Variable – Financial Incentive
condition is met.
• Significance of F Statistics = 0.207 (Which is >.05, Hence there is no difference
between different occupational groups when it comes to financial incentives.
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
Government
Employee
Mean
of
Financial
Incentive
N Mean
Student 68 2.0368
Home-maker 4 2.5000

Relation B/w Education & Forwarding of WhatsApp messages
• Dependent Variable – I usually forward whats app messages
• The Factor variable – Education
condition is met.
education on one’s intention to forward a message.)
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
Less than High
School
High School Graduate Post Graduate Ph.D. or higher
Mean
of
I
usually
forward
whats
app
messages
Education of Respondents
N Mean
Less than High School 3 1.6667
High School 19 2.1579
Graduate 56 2.3214
Post Graduate 44 2.4318
Ph.D. or higher 3 2.0000

Relation B/w Education & Perceived Value of Message
condition is met.)
• Significance of F Statistics = 0.248 (Which is >.05, Hence there exist no difference
between different educational groups.)
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
Less than High
School
Mean
of
Perceived
value
of
Message
N Mean
Graduate 56 3.1706

Relation B/w Education & Financial Incentive
condition is met.)
between different educational groups.)
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
Less than High
School
Mean
of
Financial
Incentive
N Mean
Graduate 56 1.9375

Relation B/w Age & Forwarding of WhatsApp messages
• Dependent Variable – I usually forward WhatsApp messages
• The Factor variable – Age
condition is met.
age on one’s intention to forward a message.)
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
Under 18 years 18 to 30 years 31 to 45 years Above 45 years
Mean
of
I
usually
forward
whats
app
messages
Age of Respondents
N Mean
Under 18 years 7 2.2857
18 to 30 years 108 2.2963
31 to 45 years 9 2.5556
Above 45 years 1 2.0000

Relation B/w Age & Perceived Value of Message
condition is met.)
between different age groups.)
2.80
2.90
3.00
3.10
3.20
3.30
3.40
3.50
3.60
Mean
of
Perceived
value
of
Message
Age of Respondents
N Mean
18 to 30 years 108 3.2016
31 to 45 years 9 3.1111

Relation B/w Age & Financial Incentive
condition is met.)
between different age groups.)
1.75
1.80
1.85
1.90
1.95
2.00
2.05
2.10
2.15
2.20
2.25
Mean
of
Financial
Incentive
Age of Respondents
N Mean
18 to 30 years 108 1.9074
31 to 45 years 9 2.1111

Suggestion
• Marketer should invest in creating contents that provide value either by
information or entertainment.
• Communication should be made expressive and filled with humor by use of
multimedia and emoji
• If budget allows marketer can provide financial incentives but it’s more
important to be creative in developing the message itself.
• Communication should be made in the native language of the target
population. This can be done by dubbing and translating the same content
in different language.
• Marketer should provide link to it’s website or product page with the
communication.

Suggestion
• Brevity should be considered to make communication more readable
and comprehensible. Forwarding a content should me made easier by
providing dedicated link to share.
• Lastly marketer can provide a touch of personalization by use of
words that suits it’s target market and use of 2nd person pronouns or
by use of variable insertions.

Limitation and Future Scope
• Research was conducted within a very limited time period which
limited the scope for data collection. Same study can be done with a
bigger sample size so that the findings can be more generalized.
• Further sample was collected using online methods where
represented of certain demographics are dominant hence the sample
does not represent the whole population accurately.
• The study was done only in context of WhatsApp users but there
many MIM and other social media that can be used for the same
purpose. Those platform can also be explored.

References
• Dasari, S. (2010). Viral marketing of retail products: A study on the influence of attributes of web portals and incentives offered on user registrations.
Search.Ebscohost.Com. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/open?id=11zbpud624Qrh7fNOgcgRkqEjsVyzx1 6v
• Fouad, N. (2017). Viral marketing effect on digital knowledge acquisition. Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information
Issues, 27(1), 10–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0955749017718705
• Ghosh, S., Bhattacharya, S., Gaurav, K., & Singh, Y. N. (2018). Going Viral: The Epidemiological Strategy of Referral Marketing. In arxiv.org. Retrieved
from https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.03780
• Haryani, S. (2015). Factors Affecting the Consumers Attitude towards Internet Induced Viral Marketing Techniques. Pdfs.Semanticscholar.Org.
https://doi.org/10.4172/2223-5833.1000134
• Karimiyazdi, R., & Mokhber, M. (2015). Improving viral marketing campaign via mobile instant messaging (MIM) applications. In Journal of Advanced
Review on Scientific Research ISSN (Vol. 10). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bf85/8edeeca8cdcbf4be82edc8d6869760c 24d6e.pdf
• Trivedi, J. (2017). The Effect of Viral Marketing Messages on Consumer Behavior. Journal of Management Research, 17(2), 84–98.
https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900808500301
• WhatsApp hits 200 mn user milestone in India. (2017, February 24). Retrieved February 29, 2020, from The Hindu BusinessLine website:
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/whatsapp-hits-200-mn-user-milestone-in-india/article9559045.ece
• Woerndl, M., Papagiannidis, S., Bourlakis, M., & Li, F. (2008). Internet- Induced Marketing Techniques: Critical Factors in Viral Marketing Campaigns. In
Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management (Vol. 3). Retrieved from http://kar.kent.ac.uk/25586/
• Singh, M. (2019, July 26). WhatsApp reaches 400 million users in India, its biggest market. Retrieved from
https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/26/whatsapp-india-users-400-million

Whatsapp Viral Marleting

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Whatsapp Viral Marleting

Similar to Whatsapp Viral Marleting (20)

More from Pranab Choudhary

More from Pranab Choudhary (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Whatsapp Viral Marleting